Thursday, May 23, 2013

A new video game takes flight at Tribeca Flashpoint Academy’s Avarice release event

The fully functioning, multi-level game is the work of Flashpoint's students.

BY AMANDA SCHERKER

It’s a world driven by greed and governed by ruthless CEOs with dollar-shaped holes where their hearts should be.

No, this isn’t the Occupy playbook — it’s Avarice, a video game created by students at Chicago’s Tribeca Flashpoint Academy.

Building a fully functional multi-level video game might not be a
classic college assignment, but Flashpoint isn’t a classic college.
Founded by serial entrepreneur Howard Tullman, the digital media arts school has students cut their teeth on the sort of work they’ll encounter as professionals.

Last Thursday, Avarice debuted to a crowd of students, teachers, and
Chicago techies. Alan Reck, the Flashpoint professor who crafted
Avarice’s initial design, led the audience through game’s virtual world.
Players assume the role of a corporation’s hired mercenary, build a
combat craft, and fly increasingly dangerous missions.

For more than a year, Flashpoint students have been developing
Avarice in collaboration with Reck and his Chicago-based gaming company,
ZoopTEK Studios. Reck thought up Avarice’s basic plot and the game’s
weaponry, while students built each level’s narrative and designed the
world, filling in everything from the texture of cacti to the colors of
the ships.

The event allowed attendees to play the game to a live score provided
by Miguel Kertsman, the composer of Avarice’s soundtrack, and
Chicago-based drummer Ernie Adams. The musicians improvised to suit the
game’s action, while audience members battled to the death in Avarice’s
world.

The program has results: Steam, the leading producer of PC gaming
technology, is releasing Avarice over the summer. Kertsman’s soundtrack
will be released in tandem with the game.